Rumors, like other weeds, flourish in the hills of Mendocino County, and one of the more alarming recent rumors had renewed life the week after a letter to the editor about them published in the Ukiah Daily Journal. The letter, signed by a Robert Callahan of Laytonville, an apparent alias, alleges that private security contractors dropped from helicopters in vigilante raids, without any police support, in the Woodman Canyon area, east of Laytonville. However, no one has come out with definitive proof of such allegations and Mendocino County Sheriff's spokesman, Capt. Gregory Van Patten, provided the Willits News with accounts of police activity in the area, specifying that in fact COMMET and the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force was active in the Woodman Creek area during the time in question.

The Willits News had been investigating such rumors for about two weeks when the letter was published. Though many people had commented on the odd, or unorthodox, nature of recent helicopter raids in the Woodman Canyon area, no one had stepped forward to definitively explain what had happened, provide an direct eye witness account, or cellphone video and pictures. The gist of the rumors is well summed up in the opening of the letter to the editor:

"In Laytonville, California, Wednesday, July 23 and Thursday July 24, a PMC (Private Military Company) made its way through the Woodman Canyon area in a blue and white helicopter. This helicopter had armed personnel dangling from a cable below. These men were not law enforcement. The helicopter was unmarked, and these men did not announce themselves and did not serve warrants. There was no sheriff incident reports filed. Instead, they lowered themselves into legal medical gardens with Proposition 215 doctors recommendations on the gates, and proceeded to cut down private citizens legal medical gardens." The full letter may be found in the Wednesday August 13 issue of the Ukiah Daily Journal.

There are aditionally some discrepancies in a few details between the letter, and what had been gathered by The Willits News, specifically as to the absolute 215 compliance of all the gardens. In describing the unusual nature of recent raids sources around Laytonville had commented on the fact that while water lines were cut, and plants cut down, supposedly nothing was hauled away, no warrants were served, no arrests made and no samples were taken.

Initially the sheriff's office, after briefly checking dispatch records, said that no activity had occurred in that area on the specific dates. But later, at the request of TWN, Van Patten provide a brief report on the occurrences specifying that:

"On 7-23-2014 COMMET, the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force (MMCTF), and the Mendocino County Probation Department conducted open field eradications with a private helicopter company in the area of Woodman Creek after having received complaints of the creek being drained by illegal marijuana grows in the area.

On 7-23-2014 there were 2,630 marijuana plants eradicated collectively from no less than 15 sites. All the gardens where[sic] out of compliance with 9.31 MCC and medical usage guidelines.

One marijuana garden has been eradicated numerous times in the past and some of the plants were on BLM land."

The sheriff's office added that in prior years most diversion cases had been discovered by investigators, whereas with the current drought conditions police have begun to receive direct, usually anonymous, reports of marijuana related diversions.

The letter in the Journal goes on to directly accuse LEAR Asset Management, a local private security company that has contracts with timber companies to patrol their lands for trespass grows, and has recently acquired a grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to clean-up trespass grows on private timberland.

Responding to questions of LEAR's possible participation in any vigilante raids, Paul Trouette, owner of LEAR, and president of the Blacktail Association began plainly by saying, "Lear assetmanagement had nothing to do with Woodman, Dos Rios, Spyrock, or any of those raids."

He added that the company was not even in the area, and upon consideration, commented that he did not believe they were active that week. He continued with a more specific statement saying, "We operate on properties we are contracted to operate, and that's it. We would never do trespassing, we want to honor our relationship with Sheriff Tom Allman, and Mr. Allman is well aware of when and where we work, we notify him when we're working. And I respect my relationship with Tom Allman, and we are not rogue vigilantes."

The sheriff's department does not have its own helicopter, and as Trouette pointed out there are a handful of private pilots and copter rental companies that rent to both his company and law enforcement. The result of this is that often the helicopter sheriff's officers ride in will not be marked, and could be the very same one used by LEAR at another time.

LEAR is currently active in Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake and Colusa Counties, and Trouette indicated that they will soon be operating in others. Trouette continued to emphasize his close cooperation with the sheriffs adding that, "We have done collaborative operations when they're needed..we would assist them or help them in their operations on eradication." Asked for specifics he said, "We would go in for assistance, I'll just leave it at that."

Bottom line Trouette said, "My main goal is to let people know that if you're not on our client's property you have nothing to worry about." Adding, "We don't mess with peoples 215's."

Sheriff Tom Allman seemed skeptical that any such activity might be occurring in the county. Allman answered questions while assisting at the Lodge Complex fire near Laytonville, saying, "I have not had report of Blacktail or LEAR asset protection[sic], in Woodman Canyon. So if there is someone that wants to report, first hand, to me of private security on someone's private land destroying marijuana, I want to hear about it. But as of now it's an urban legend and no one is saying, 'Yes I saw it.'"